Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

348 CONCILItUM. CONCIO.
vice of slaves: he further adds that the compitalia assembly of a portion of the people (Gell. xv. 27),
were celebrated a few days after the Saturnalia as distinct from the general assemblies or comitia.
with great splendour, and that the slaves on this oc- (Fest. p. 50; Cic. De Leg. ii. 1, p. Red. in Sen. 5.)
casion had full liberty given them to do what they Accordingly, as the comitia tributa embraced only
pleased. We further learn from Macrobins (Saturn. a portion of the Roman people, viz. the plebeians,
i. 7) that the celebration of the compitalia was these comitia are often designated by the term
restored by Tarquinius Superbus, who sacrificed concilia plebis. (Liv. vii. 5, xxviii. 53, xxxix.
boys to Mania, the mother of the lares; but this 15.) Upon the same principle, it might be suppractice was changed after the expulsion of the posed that the comitia curiata might be called
Tarquins, and garlic and poppies offered in their concilia, and Niebuhr (Hist. of Rome, i. p. 425)
stead. believes that the concilia populi which are menThe persons, who presided over the festival tioned now and then, actually were the comitia
were the IIctgistri vici, who were on that occasion curiata; but there is no evidence of those patrician
allowed to wear the praetexta (Ascon. ad Cic. in assemblies, which ill the early times certainly
Pis. p. 7, ed. Orelli). Public games were added never looked upon themselves as a mere part off
at some time during the republican Feriod to this the nation, having ever been called by that name.
festival, but they were suppressed by command of, In fact, all the passages in which concilia populi
the senate ill B. C. 68; and it was one of the occur, clearly show that none other but the comitia
charges brought forward by Cicero against L. Piso tributa are meant. (Liv. i. 36, ii. 7, 60, iii. 13, 16,
that he allowed them to be celebrated in his con. 64, 71, xxx. 24, xxxviii. 53, xxxix. 15, xliii. 16,
sulship, B. c. 58 (Cic. in Pis. 4; Ascon. 1. c.) But Cic. in Vat. 7.) As concilium, however, has the
that the festival itself still continued to be observed, meaning of an assembly in general, we cannot
though the games were abolished, is evident from wonder that sometimes it is used in a loose way to
Cicero (ad Alt. iii. 3). During the civil wars the designate the comitia of the centuries (Liv. ii. 28)
festival fell into disuse, and was accordingly re- or any concio. (Livi. ii. 7, 28, v. 43; Gell. xviii. 7;
stored by the emperor Augustus. (Suet. Any. 31; comp. Becker, elandb. de*r Rom. A4tertl. vol. ii.
comp. Or. Fast. v. 128-148.) As Augustus was part i. p. 359, note 693.)
now the pater patriae, the worship of the old lares We must here notice a peculiar sense in which
was discontinued, and the lares of the emperor conciliunm is used by Latin writers to denote the
consequently becamie the lares of the state. Hence, assemblies or meetings of confederate towns or
the Scholiast on I-orace (ad Sat. ii. 3. 281), tells nations, at which either their deputies alone or
us that Augustus set up lares or penates at places any of the citizens met who had time and inwhere two or more ways met, and instituted for clination, and thus formed a representative asthe purpose of attending to their worship an order sembly. (Liv. i. 50.) Such an assembly or diet
of priests, who hwere taken from the Libertini, and is commonly designated as commune conciliaum or
were called A zg2Gstales. These Augustales are en- Tb iCOLwvp, e. g. A4claeorum, Aetolornsn, Boeoto/rum,
tirely different from the Augustales, who were 3caeedoniae, and the like. (Liv. xxxvi. 31,
appointed to attend to the worship of Augustus after xxxviii. 34, xlii. 43, xlv. 18; Gel]. ii. 6.) Of the
his decease, as has been well shown by A. WV. same kind were the diets of the Latins in the
Zumpt in his essay on the subject. (De Augus- grove of Ferentina (Liv. i. 51, vi. 33, vii. 25,
Itlibuss, &c., BeroI. 1846.) [AUGUSTALES.] viii. 3), the meetings of the Etruscans near the
The compitalia belonged to the.friace concep- temple of Voltumna (Liv. iv. 23, 25, 61, v. 17,
tirae, that is, festivals which were celebrated on vi. 2), of the Hernicans in the circus of Anagnia
days appointed annually by the magistrates or (ix. 42), of the Aequians and Samnites (iii. 2, iv.
priests. The exact day on which this festival was 25, x. 12). [L. S.]
celebrated, appears to have varied, though it was CO'NCIO or CO'NTIO, a contraction for conalways in the winter. Dionysius relates (iv. 14), ventio, that is, a meeting, or a conventus. (Festus,
as we have already said, that it was celebrated a p. 66, ed. MUller.) In the technical sense, howfew days after the Saturnalia, and Cicero (in Pison. ever, a concio was an assembly of the people at
4) that it fell on the Kalends of January; but in Rome convened by a magistrate for the purpose of
one of his letters to Atticus (vii. 7) he speaks of it making the people acquainted with measures which
as falling on the fourth before the ilones of January. were to be brought before the next comitia, and of
The exact words, with which the festival was an- working upon them eith r to support or oppose the
nolnced, are preserved by Macrobius (Saturn. i. 4) measure. But no question of any kind could be
and Aulus Gellius (x. 24). decided by a concio, and this constitutes the differCOMPLU'VIUM. [Domus.] ence between conciones and comitia. (Gell. xiii.
COMPROMISSUM. [JUDEX; RECEPTA 14; Cic. p. Sext. 50, 53; Liv. xxxix. 15.) Still
ACTIO.] conciones were also convened for other purposes,
COMUS (Kcuose). [CHORUS; COalOEDIA.] e.g. of persuading the people to take part in a
CON CHA (icdyXi), a Greek and Roman liquid war (Dionys. vi. 28), or of bringing complaints
measure, of which there were two sizes.'The sigainst a party in the republic. (Dionys. ix. 25;
snallhr was half the ctathlus (= —0412 of a pint Plut. C. Gracez. 3.) Meetings of this kind naturally
English); the larger, which was the same as the were of very frequent occurrence at Rome. The
oxybaplhu7n, was three times the former (= 1238 earliest that is mentioned, is one held immediately
of a pint). (Hussey, pp. 207, 209; Wurm, p. after the death of Romulus by Julius Proculus in
129.) [P. S.] the Campus Martius (Liv. i. 16; Plut. Rom. 27)
CONCILIAIBULUM. rCoLoNIA, p. 318,a.] the first, after the expulsion of the kings, was held
CONCILIA'RII. [AssEssoa.] byBrutus. (Liv. ii. 2; Dionys. v. 10, &c.) Ever:y
CONCI'LIUM generally has the same meaning magistrate had the right to convene conciones, but
as convrn2tZs or conventio, but the technical import it was most frequently exercised by the consuls
of coniciiium in tile Roman constitution was an and tribunes, and the latter more especially e;